An Interview with Myra Hess -- 1963

Dame Myra Hess (1890-1965) interviewed by John Amis (1922-2013) for his BBC Radio 3 programme Talking about Music, 1963.

[@leonwhitesell4849]

Thank you so very much for this delightful cameo❣️❣️❣️

[@fredwanger9337]

Priceless! Such a great artist❤

[@berlinzerberus]

Wonderful impressions of a wonderful gentle and humorous person but we are already able to hear the very special touch in her voice which is called melancholia. It is needless to say what a great great great artist she was!

[@DanielRobertspiano]

Love this interview! As I`ve always found, the great Pianists have so much personality, and sense of humour.

[@jacksprat3100]

come across this totally by accident. I thoroughly enjoyed listening to this lady. I found her extremely interesting and funny. a lovely lady, with a nice interviewer too thanks..

[@evanofelipe]

What a fantastic and wonderful woman, a truly talented artist who knew how the power of music could transform ‘reality’ albeit temporary and lift spirits in times of adversity. Her lunch time recitals during the 2nd world war were inspirational and gave immense joy to thousands. Precious moment of light in the midst of fear and darkness. A great interview by John Amis

[@PeterLunowPL]

simply wonderful and a delicious sense of humour

[@JamesVaughan]

WONDERFUL upload, Erwin. I shall savour every word of Dame Myra's. I love her self-depricating sense of humour and her vivid depictions of British concert life and the great conductors with whom she worked during the first half of the 20th century. Makes me sad that her career wasn't longer - if she had only been able to keep going another decade, I might have the priceless memory of having heard her in person in New York!

[@JamesVaughan]

Sorry, I meant self-deprEcating (I thought I was right the first time!) You can't always trust Google's (or is it my Yosemite software's) "corrections"!

[@pianopera]

James Vaughan "If Mozart isn't spontaneous, it's dead"...how right she was...but how difficult it is to perform it that way!

[@JamesVaughan]

pianopera Dame Myra's 1961 A Major (K 488) - recorded at the Proms with Sir Adrian Boult, one of her very last public performances as far as I know - is superb. Whereas other pianists play a bare-bones version of the Adagio, playing only the notes Mozart wrote, Dame Myra tastefully ornaments and fills in the near-empty measures with exquisitely (quasi-improvised) filigree (which is what Mozart would have done, and what he surely intended). Her D minor (K 466) under Bruno Walter (mid-1950s) is filled with drama and tension, and I adore her K 271 from Perpignan (c. 1950, Casals the conductor). "Music should sing"! I agree, Dame Myra! And her music did - I think of her Granados "Maiden and the Nightingale", or her Brahms Op. 117, No. 1 - a poignant lullaby - just for starters.

[@pianopera]

James Vaughan Totally agree!

[@nabieladrian]

Funny that the devices she hated actually helped her to reach me into present moment.

[@irenechoi9423]

I agree!!👍

[@dasglasperlenspiel10]

Really wonderful!

[@Paolo8772]

Fun fact: Myra Hess was the piano player of the 1954 recording of Schumann's Symphonic Etudes op 13 #12 where four seconds almost two measures from 5:48-5:52 where played backwards and looped repeatedly which was my very favourite of many tape loops used in Revolution 9 by The Beatles in 1968. The re-issue of the 1954 recording was in 2010.

[@jt414]

Thank you so much for uploading this piece of DELIGHTFUL history!!!

[@hhoward14]

This is an absolutely golden account.

[@saltburner2]

I was at her last Prom - Beethoven 4 under Boult on Fri 8 Sep 1961. It has since been issued on CD by the BBC.

[@londonnodippydolly6635]

In 1983 Dame Myra Hess was fondly mentioned by Hinge & Bracket on their BBC L.P. it is lovely to hear Dame Myra talking , you can hear every word she is saying, same with John Amis who is interviewing her. Sadly it points out how much the English language has greatly declined.

[@MrInterestingthings]

declined. My Muy mie. Ain't nah discline in da anglish and da wunnerful apPope peeation of street skeet tok. Tiktok lyke I olways say ! Asians , Hebrew da Arabic and ArUUUmaic negro jive . Iz all a byutiful hap like Hardy says . Eat ya burgers and hope it co e lessens ta give us all a stimulating nu patwah!

[@davidnawarauckas9155]

Brilliant!

[@johnwholovesmusic]

Thank you so much for posting this.

[@danali45]

Very moving interview

[@WYSOAlums]

Wonderful--thank you so much for uploading!

[@MsGravity]

Thanks for uploading

[@davidlawler4019]

The wartime concerts held at the National Gallery. I remember a newsreel showing the then Queen Elizabeth sitting in the audience, I'm surprised Dame Myra made no mention of this in her interview.

[@metteholm4833]

One MUST like her :-)

[@arlettehellemans2117]

I just read in "Mijn geluk mijn liefde" that the Dutch composer Mattijs Vermeulen, brother-in-law of Diepenbrock, contrary to his first and second wife, didn't like her playing for 100 %

[@arlettehellemans2117]

What a coïncidence! I just read the book of Vermeulen too. Here, nobody knows it

[@beth_levin_piano]

Thank you.

[@mmbmbmbmb]

p r e c i o u s ~ thank you !

[@adriancook7078]

I think the best way to appreciate Myra Hess is to hear Artur Rubinstein and then Dame Myra Hess playing the same piece. Rubinstein brings you to the point and then Dame Myra shows you what it is really all about. It's incredible. These two so different giants.

[@paulprocopolis]

Most interesting! I guess John Amis was quite lucky to get this interview, because in 1963, Hess was no longer on the concert platform and in a depressed state about it. In fact it's quite poignant to hear her talking here as if she were still performing ... I think you have an earlier Hess interview on your channel in which, if memory serves correctly, she speaks in a very similar vein (?)

[@pianopera]

Indeed, that interview was done in 1952 with Jim Fassett. Part of this interview with John Amis is already uploaded by "RabidCh", but it's not the complete broadcast.

[@cbooth2004]

Wonderful.

[@MrInterestingthings]

Listen to her attacks , each line of voice in The Carnival her timimg . So sensitive phrasing! I feel like I haven't been a very good listener !Such a gentle . There is a lot to learn just to really be able to listen to these old phonograph records . So down to earth . The embracing of life in all its colors and so modest . She played all the Mozart concerti - is there record of this . We have changed so much and recording is so much better I shouldn't say there are many other pianists I'd rather hear in mozart. Kovacevich idolizes her but he has good ears and training my talent would not lend me acess to . Anyway Once A Soul Hears yes Hears the Divine Ingrid Haebler noone else will ever DO !!!

[@johnhannagan9324]

My ideal of piano-playing...

[@pollywanda]

I wonder what Myra thought about Agi Jambor and other artists escaping the Nazis.

[@pianomaly9859]

That sly inner voice in the Carnaval excerpt she brings out. Never heard it before.

[@morinoroba]

Interesting differences between New York audience and London audience.

[@SW-wf3gy]

May I ask which piece of music was played here? So lovely.

[@pianopera]

Jessica W A snippet from Robert Schumann's "Carnaval" opus 9...the whole recording is available on my channel!

[@RNobleman]

At 5:03 she's playing the middle section of the third movement of Mozart's piano concerto No.9 in Eb K.271 ("Jeunehomme"). Absolutely beautiful!

[@arlettehellemans2117]

With which orchestra did she play the "Jeunehomme" ?

[@christopherczajasager9030]

@@arlettehellemans2117 I believe at the Casals Festival in Orades...

[@nathandor5778]

on a side